Najee swallowed, searching for the politically correct words to say. It was only day one of being out, and he didn’t want to argue, but his spirit was disturbed. So, he went with the safest answer.
“I wanted to surprise you.”
She gave a soft laugh and ran her thumb over his untamed brow. “Well, you did. Got me crying, looking a mess.”
“Crying like somebody died,” he tried to joke, but it fell flat somewhere.
Renae’s eyes misted again, and she smiled but not as brightly. “It felt like a part of me did.”
That made Najee pause.
He studied her. How her eyes bounced across his face, searching, longing, and apologizing without words. She was beautiful, no doubt. Pecan-colored skin, brown eyes, a short but shapely frame, and the most adorable laugh drew Najee in all those years ago. He knew as much as he could learn and know about a person over the course of five years.
Something in her expression didn’t sit right. It wasn’t the kind of guilt she had when she spent too much money on unnecessary shit at the mall. Or when she fell asleep while waiting up for him to come home. It was more layered, like she was trying to remember the rehearsed lines she’d say during their reunion but had been given a new script last minute. Najee’s presence had caught her off guard. Knocked her off her square.
“You good?” he finally asked.
Renae nodded fast. Almost too fast. “Yeah. I just...I didn’t know when exactly you’d be out. I was gonna be here, I swear. I just ran to grab something real quick, and?—”
“I didn’t ask all that,” Najee cut in, gently but firmly. “I just asked ifyouwere good.”
She blinked, lips parting like she had to reroute her whole answer and rewire her brain. “Yeah,” she said again, quieter this time. “I’m good. Just… trying to wrap my head around you being here.”
Najee’s first instinct was to nod his head, but he didn’t.
“You’d tell me if something were wrong, right? I ain’t coming home to no bullshit, am I?”
“No, baby. I promise you’re not. Nothing is wrong now that you’re home. I’ve just been all over the place, missing you and going through some stuff at work.”
“Speaking of work... don’t you work on Fridays?” Najee asked.
“I took a sick day.”
His brow raised. “For what? You sick?”
He palmed her forehead, trying to gauge her temperature. Renae laughed.
“No. I wanted to sleep in. That job stressed me out all week. Then, I met my sister for breakfast, and we went to TJ Maxx before her shift,” she explained.
Najee nodded. It wasn’t unlike her to call off from work and link up with her sister. The only reason he was tripping was because of how she’d been moving the last few months.
“A’ight,” he said, kissing her lips.
He squeezed her ass and massaged it as their kiss deepened. Renae moaned against his lips and smirked when she felt him harden even more underneath her.
“Mmm, someone missed me,” she mumbled against his mouth.
Najee was trying to get into it, and clearly his dick was, but his mind was elsewhere. The thought of her fucking another nigga while he was locked up hit him out of nowhere, and he pulled back.
Renae’s eyes shot open. “What’s wrong?”
Najee leaned back and laced his fingers together in front of him, with eyes locked on hers. “I was locked down for over a year. You know what you do with all that time? You think. And the more I thought… the more things started feeling off between us.”
“Off like what?” she asked. Her voice was barely above a whisper, like she didn’t want the answer.
“Off like you barely answering my calls. Sounding like you got an attitude when you do pick up. Our calls got shorter. A couple of visits got missed. Little shit that ain’t ever been us. I told myself that you were busy, overwhelmed with work and shit, but I don’t know, baby. I ain’t been feeling the love you say you got for a nigga.”
He wasn’t going to throw Nyesha into the mix. She confided in him on the strength of being her brother, and he needed to be put up on game. What she told him only added to how he had already been feeling.
